


something she can't understand

by sangi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-21
Updated: 2007-08-21
Packaged: 2018-03-13 15:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3386996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sangi/pseuds/sangi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mai was back in his cell again, a lantern in one hand and some painful-looking object in the other, and she said in her monotone voice, “Azula thinks you don’t understand the lesson.” - 1sentence prompts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	something she can't understand

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 2007, posted here again for archival purposes.

1\. Motion  
  
   
  
She was as quick in battle as he expected, but when she had him caught up against the wall with the kind of deadness in her eyes he didn’t expect, he hesitated for a moment before kicking her away.  
  
   
  
2\. Cool  
  
   
  
The knife was cool as it bit into his neck, a light trickle of blood dripping down, and his eyes were heated with suppressed mirth, but hers were cold as ice.  
  
   
  
3\. Young  
  
   
  
Pale gold eyes meet with those of dark, heavy brown and suddenly the lines on his face seem so much deeper, because it brings back memories he doesn’t want to forget.  
  
   
  
4\. Last  
  
   
  
He told himself that this would be the last time that he would let himself be caught, and when he told Mai this, she said nothing, face impassive, lips straight in a line, but her eyes were smiling with the knowledge of a joke they shared.  
  
   
  
5\. Wrong  
  
   
  
Jet’s was sitting on one side of the wall and she on the other - only the metal bars kept them apart, and Mai was just absent-mindedly talking to herself; she stopped for a moment, and he said, almost annoyed, “Go on.”  
  
   
  
6\. Gentle  
  
   
  
When Mai tied the ropes around his wrists, they were much looser than they need to be.  
  
   
  
7\. One  
  
   
  
Azula was off to the side (he could see the blue fire through the trees), and Ty Lee was off with the two Water Tribe members, but the third girl was right in front of him, and he smirked because it was obvious who was going to win, but then she said, “I’m giving you the chance to surrender,” and the countdown began.  
  
   
  
8\. Thousand  
  
   
  
“The Fire Nation is ten centuries old,” the girl blurted out, and Jet opened his lazy eyes because this is the first time she’d spoken to him and there was an unusual pink flushing her cheeks.  
  
   
  
9\. King  
  
   
  
An impassive face flickered some kind of psuedo emotion as her hands were held high in the air, surrendering herself right at the foot of his two own feet, practically bowing, and he smirked.  
  
   
  
10\. Learn  
  
   
  
Mai was back in his cell again, a lantern in one hand and some painful-looking object in the other, and she said in her monotone voice, “Azula thinks you don’t understand the lesson.”  
  
   
  
11\. Blur  
  
   
  
The only thing Jet can honestly remember about the days and nights he was kept underground, leaving the world to think he was dead, was the quiet girl who brought him his food and threw a knife that narrowly missed his ear when he had put the charms on her, and after he had said, “Nice aim,” she had responded with, “What are you talking about? I missed.”  
  
   
  
12\. Wait  
  
   
  
The cell bars were broken and he stepped out into the fresh air of freedom, and he looked back at the solemn girl who seemed torn, and slowly started to walk into the sunlight, when her arm reached out to grab his wrist, “Wait,” she said, almost whispering, “let me come with you.”  
  
   
  
13\. Change  
  
   
  
Mai talked more than she did before – not the kind of chattiness that Ty Lee exhibited, nor the cruel snarl of Azula, but just honest talk (when they ran into her ex-friends again, he could see the princess’s eyes weighing the possibilities, and she attacked him first).  
  
   
  
14\. Command  
  
   
  
She’s a dictator (“You will eat these vegetables if you want to be big and strong-”).  
  
   
  
15\. Hold  
  
   
  
When the news came, he held her as she cried for the loss of her family and New Ozai; her sobs were the sobs of someone who was felt loss so it’s almost numb now, but he held he anyways.  
  
   
  
16\. Need  
  
   
  
Training had taken over Mai’s life at one point, and when he told her that she should rest, she had given him a glimpse of her soulless eyes and said, “Azula needs this,” as if she could hear.  
  
   
  
17\. Vision  
  
   
  
In a strange house, with an even stranger waiting-girl, they got their fortune told by one of the most absurd women Mai has ever met – “Your life isn’t going the way you want it to, is it?” the old lady tsked.  
  
   
  
18\. Attention  
  
   
  
He’s not the kind of man that fawns over women like their caretaker, and he’s not the kind of man that ignores them either, he’s just in between, and that is just fine for her.  
  
   
  
19\. Soul  
  
   
  
“I don’t believe in heaven,” he says, looking at the stars.  
  
   
  
20\. Picture  
  
   
  
When the acrobat had come crashing through the bushes, arms thoroughly burnt and hair fringed, she had collapsed, but Mai was there in an instant, holding her fallen friend as he watched her struggle not to cry anymore.  
  
   
  
21\. Fool  
  
   
  
“I was a fool,” Ty Lee said, to Jet the next morning, wincing in pain, “to believe her.” And she glanced between Jet and Mai, and on a lighter note, winked.  
  
   
  
22\. Mad  
  
   
  
Mai’s voice sounds like she is trying to keep it under control as she pleads to him for help: “We need to find the Avatar.”  
  
   
  
23\. Child  
  
   
  
He doesn’t seem much older than fifteen, but so far he’s been an orphan, a leader, a confidant, a prisoner, and a lover: she never lets him forget this, with her eyes and her hair, and the way he sees her staring into the fire at night.  
  
   
  
24\. Now  
  
   
  
Ty Lee could see the bison in the distance and she doesn’t point, because she still couldn’t move her arms, but she did incline her head, and move to wait dutifully for them near the bushes, and Mai impulsively grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him firmly before baking away hesitantly, “For the now,” she explains.  
  
   
  
25\. Shadow  
  
   
  
Jet and Mai and Ty Lee (a truly rag-tag group) finally found the Avatar in the middle of the night, when they are all asleep and shadows from the on-going fire played out the emotions on their faces, and surprisingly with them was Iroh (Jet quirked a brow), but Mai said “I’m sorry to disturb you, but we need your help,” and she motioned to Ty Lee’s burnt arms.  
  
   
  
26\. Goodbye  
  
   
  
Sitting with Mai, his eyes were on the water bender as she healed Ty Lee’s arms, slowly, methodically; in the distance, Iroh was teaching Aang firebending, and he could hear the distinct words: “You need to let go…” and it trailed off.  
  
   
  
27\. Hide  
  
   
  
Jet was about to leap out from behind the pillar and sneak farther into the catacombs, but Mai’s hand across his mouth stopped him and she hissed, “Here comes another guard.”  
  
   
  
28\. Fortune  
  
   
  
Azula was injured by the time that Mai reaches her, and Zuko was standing over her, almost triumphant but also guilty, and she laughed at them all – “Traitors and enemies, together,” she coughed and spat up blood, eyes darting between Jet and Mai, “so lucky of you to find me like this.”  
  
   
  
29\. Safe  
  
   
  
“One down,” he muttered.  
  
   
  
30\. Ghost  
  
   
  
Sometimes Mai felt the ghost of a hand on her shoulders or near the small of her back, but every time she turned around she could only see a solemn Jet.  
  
   
  
31\. Book  
  
   
  
“It’s sacred Jet, you really shouldn’t write on it.” Her voice was cold but she seemed quite upset – “I don’t believe in God,” he said just as coolly.  
  
   
  
32\. Eye  
  
   
  
He and Mai watched quietly as the others fought in the distance, and when he made a move to join them, her arm gently rested on his and she says almost reverently, “Leave them alone, they’ll see in time.”  
  
   
  
33\. Never  
  
   
  
“I don’t think I can kill her,” she answered his unasked question, and he nodded before holding her hand and squeezing it tightly, and commenting to her, “I don’t think I can either.”  
  
   
  
34\. Sing  
  
   
  
Jet woke up to the sunlight on his eyelids, and the stirring of something warm and vaguely familiar on his chest –is that black hair, or is it just my imagination? – and as he blinked the sands of sleep from his eyes he could see the familiar form of a weapons mistress on his chest and he smiled his playboy, lopsided smile and closed his eyes to listen to the birds sing.  
  
   
  
35\. Sudden  
  
   
  
“I think I love you,” she admits.  
  
   
  
36\. Stop  
  
   
  
It was in the middle of a battle and he could hear something whizzing towards him and could sense movement towards the right, but he was preoccupied, and the wound shouldn’t be fatal anyways, right?, but then a blur of red on black and she was behind him, with a knife blocking the person that that attempted to get at him, “I have your back,” Mai said simply.  
  
   
  
37\. Time  
  
   
  
“We don’t have enough time,” he said, and shoved a scroll into her hands – she frowned, “Jet…”, but he had already interrupted (“Go! I can hold them off!”).  
  
   
  
38\. Wash  
  
   
  
“The blood won’t come off,” she said numbly, as Jet watched her scrub her hands in the river mercilessly.  
  
   
  
39\. Torn  
  
   
  
Mai hesitated, eyes glancing between Jet and Azula, and that was when the fire princess attacked (she weighed her options carefully); but Ty Lee was there in an instant, all bittersweet bubbles, “Remember me?”  
  
   
  
40\. History  
  
   
  
Katara was giving Jet puppy eyes, and Mai looked between him and the water bender suspiciously.  
  
   
  
41\. Power  
  
   
  
He threw a kick and she fell to the ground, as he won a training match for the umpteenth time in a row: “Again,” she said.  
  
   
  
42\. Bother  
  
   
  
Mai hated the rain – the that it fell, the way that it always seemed to land on her forehead and drip it’s way slowly down her face, constantly testing her patience, and then all of a sudden the rain over her head had stopped, and she had looked over to see Jet with an umbrella clutched tightly in his grip, resting over their heads; she smiled.  
  
   
  
43\. God  
  
   
  
“I don’t believe in God,” he said, and she looked at him with hollow eyes, and replied, slowly, “I’m not quite sure either way.”  
  
   
  
44\. Wall  
  
   
  
“I’ll go this way and you go that way,” Mai said at the divide.  
  
   
  
45\. Naked  
  
   
  
Jet hadn’t been surprised when he had walked in on Mai in the hot springs (she nearly had whiplash turning around and burying all she could of her body underwater), but you couldn’t say it was on purpose either; he turned around to give her modesty as she dressed, and a knife whizzed past his ear, cutting off a lock of hair and lodging itself into the wall – he laughed – “Nice aim,” he said, and he could almost see her eyebrow quirking as she replied, “What are you talking about? I missed.”  
  
   
  
46\. Drive  
  
   
  
Jet watched as she threw the knife and he watched as it missed the almost invisible black dot in the center of the target, “I need to do this,” she repeated to herself.  
  
   
  
47\. Harm  
  
   
  
Mai’s arm was bleeding (very badly), Katara looked over worriedly and even Ty Lee seemed a bit anxious, but they hadn’t the time to heal it, and Jet reached out to her shoulder (she flinched), “Don’t worry,” she assured in her monotone, “It’s just a graze.”  
  
   
  
48\. Precious  
  
   
  
Jet hadn’t Mai cry in months, so this time he is startled when he walked into her room to see her sobbing over something in an intricately carved box: a comb (“My mother gave it to me,” she later explains).  
  
   
  
49\. Hunger  
  
   
  
He looked at her with eyes filled with something she can’t understand, “I don’t believe in a lot of things,” and then he was on her.  
  
   
  
50\. Believe  
  
   
  
“Jet, wake up,” she said, shaking him, “It’s time.”


End file.
